Twitterpated

• 01:57 Photo: Superman Hates Fatties Source: Comics Make No Sense tumblr.com/xpy8b72qw #
• 08:17 I think I need a new MP3 player. Too bad I don't have much in the way of funds. #
• 08:18 Any suggestions as to what I should look for? My main stipulation is that I need fairly high capacity, so don't go recommending any Nanos. #
• 11:01 What's up with LiveJournal having pop-up ads now? All the more reason to set up shop somewhere else, I guess, but I'm not sure where. #
• 11:03 @StephenAtHome @3x1minus1 But that's a proper noun! #
• 11:04 I'm not sure I'll be making a journal post today. I'm sure you're all disappointed. :P #
• 11:11 @JaredofMo Guess you're not watching the director's cut. #
• 11:14 @JaredofMo It's weird, because I currently have a Creative player w/much more capacity than that, but they apparently stopped making it. #
• 11:14 Why did so many companies stop making high-capacity MP3 players? I thought these things were supposed to get bigger over time, not smaller. #
• 14:44 I'm too busy. Talk to the other guard. #
• 15:00 I usually cite TMBG as a band that would suffer from the loss of the album format, but "The Else" kinda was just a collection of songs. #
• 15:01 Hey, John and John, where was "The Else Theme"? #
• 15:18 @MikeConway Not silver shoes? Not enough of a purist for me. :P #
• 15:28 @renlong Eh, I always kind of suspected. :P #
• 15:30 @DVDBoxSet And that's a problem for you? #
• 15:42 @TarynAria Was it a $5 footlong? #
• 15:45 Didn't Scraps use the word "punk" once, albeit not in the same context? I think it was in "Lucky Bucky." #
• 15:46 @jlbellwriter That's fair enough. #
• 15:48 @TarynAria What kind of bread? #
• 15:49 The only reason Nimmie Amee wanted Nick Chopper in the first place was his Axe body spray. #
• 15:50 @ConanOBrien Too bad I have a disease that isn't known yet. #
• 16:28 @ohhijordan It's not that I don't think it's cohesive, but I think all the songs would have worked individually as well. #
• 16:59 Ah, the family values crowd. Nothing like Christians defending an institution that Jesus seemed not to like much! #
• 17:10 This traffic reporter is named Dama. Does she have any invisibility fruit? #
• 17:11 Governor Christie is buying new helicopters? Dude, I thought you wanted to CUT spending. #
• 20:34 @TarynAria I love the warm weather because I can wear less. #
• 20:38 @CGCassimus Chicken nuggets? #

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Holy Harmonizing Hippies: The Jesus Musicals

The early seventies must have been an auspicious time for musicals based on the life of Jesus, because it's when Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar came out. I recently had occasion to watch the movie versions of both of these. Although both covered the same subject, they did so in quite different ways. Godspell was more of a performance art piece, while JCS was a rock opera with more of a story and exploration of character. Also, Godspell focuses largely on the sayings and parables of Jesus, and JCS explores the events leading up to his death. I have to say I much preferred JCS, but I guess I've never been much of a performance art fan. Godspell also struck me as rather more over the top. Both made Jesus' followers into hippies (a sensible choice for people who wandered around preaching peace and love), but the Godspell hippies had much more exaggerated and clownish outfits. Also, both included some modern references, but they seemed rather more blatant in Godspell. Maybe that's just because of the Three Stooges references, though. It called a lot of attention to its New York City setting, but I don't think this was even mentioned in the dialogue. Actually, I think both musicals were rather minimal productions that don't take place anywhere in particular, but the Godspell movie makers decided on New York. JCS was filmed in Israel, albeit pretty much entirely outdoors.

As far as the portrayals of Jesus himself go, the Godspell Jesus was happy. REALLY happy, in fact, pretty much all the time. The titular superstar of the other film, however, had a greater range of emotions, spending a lot of time fretting and clearly having a temper. Godspell didn't really explore the other characters all that much, while JCS was largely focused on characterization. Judas Iscariot was played as a sympathetic tragic figure with conflicting opinions toward Jesus. Even the high priest Caiaphas, while not the nicest guy, is hardly the irredeemable villain that Christian writings present. As such, I'm a little disappointed that they kept in the stuff about the bloodthirsty Jewish leaders pretty much forcing Pontius Pilate into crucifying Jesus, which rather reeks of antisemitism. Not that I think the makers of the musical were being intentionally antisemitic, but with the nuances they added to other characters and scenes, I would have hoped this part would have been less straightforward. In fact, if the Wikipedia article is any indication, the very fact that the characters are fleshed out beyond their Biblical portrayals caused some controversy among Christian critics. Apparently they would have preferred if Judas had just been a fink, rather than a character with multiple dimensions. Oh, and I also feel it necessary to mention JCS's Herod, a flamboyant partying dork who made for an enjoyable scene. I get the impression Herod is the role they give to the actor who isn't particularly good-looking.

Overall, Godspell was fine for what it was, which was essentially a rather vaudevillian work of performance art based on the Gospels (particularly Matthew). But JCS was more of a fun and interesting viewing for me. I've read that it was based mostly on the Gospel of John, although Judas' fate was taken from Matthew, the book with the most sympathetic presentation of the betrayer.

Abject Objectification, Part 5

Honestly, I'm getting pretty bored with this, and I get the impression that you readers are as well. Still, I might as well finish up.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
The final page of our list

20. Kaley Cuoco
Man, this top page is filled with people I don't know. I think some of you fine people watch The Big Bang Theory, but I never have. It really strikes me as one of those shows written about geeks by non-geeks, but maybe I'm wrong.

19. Scarlett Johansson
Yeah, she deserves to be on here (and higher than most of the rest of the people on the list), but that's not really saying much. Tastes differ, but have you ever heard anyone say, "Scarlett Johansson? That cow!" Except maybe in ancient Greece, a time and place in which cows were considered beautiful.


18. Kate Bosworth
Don't know her, but she looks all right.

17. Grace Park
I think I've been there before. They had a jungle gym. Wait, that's a person's name?

16. Kim Kardashian
Awesome, yet another person who's famous due to family connections rather than any actual merit on her part! Unlike other people in this category (Paris Hilton, George W. Bush, the British royal family, etc.), however, she really does have kind of a nice body.

15. Karolina Kurkova
A Czech model? Well, I'm one-eighth Czech, so that means I should like her, right? I mean, that's part of why I thought I should read Kafka. Seriously, she's pretty typical model material. I like that yellow bra she's wearing in the picture, if that counts for anything.

14. Kate Beckinsale
Eh, whatever.

13. Halle Berry
I can't say I've ever been a fan of hers. I think maybe it has something to do with her hairstyle.

12. Megan Fox
Okay, I've asked this before, but really, what's her appeal? She looks kind of unpleasant to me.

11. Ana Ivanovic
No real opinion.

10. Salma Hayek
Don't know much about her, but I'll agree that she's attractive.

9. Minka Kelly
Another one I can't say I care about.

8. Beyonce
I kind of find her attractive against my will, because I think she seems bitchy, but that doesn't mean she doesn't look good.

7. Evangeline Lilly
If you're referring to anyone on lost, your references are going to be LOST on me.

6. Emmanuelle Chirqui
Meh.

5. Marissa Miller
Meh again.

4. Isla Fisher
She's all right, but a little on the skinny side for my taste. I've seen her compared to Amy Adams, but I like Amy better.

3. Jessica Alba
Another one where I don't really see her appeal so much. I mean, she's not ugly or anything, but one of the hottest celebrities? I wouldn't say that.

2. Sofia Vergara
Well, based on the pictures, she's pretty.

1. January Jones
What, like the New Pornographers song? No, wait, that's JULY Jones. Maybe they're related. Whatever. I guess I agree with a fair number of the choices on this list, but not the order by any means.

Well, that's it for this exercise, if you can call it that. I hope I haven't offended anyone's sensibilities with this series, but if I have, take solace in the fact that I don't think I'm going to be doing it again.